10 Dining Trends You Need to Know About

The food world is a fickle one. One day, chefs are going out and foraging algae, mushrooms, insects, and other post-apocalyptic grub for their fine-dining meals. The next, they’re picking up arms and shooting their supper. Just when you think that you’ve gotten a handle on what’s trending—it’s all about pickles and kale, right?—folks like us tell you no, dumbass, it’s fermentation and kohlrabi greens.

While staying on top of the changing fashions of the dining scene can be exhausting, this frenetic evolution brings plenty of upside for curious eaters. It means, for example, that an addictive, crazy-creative version of a usually trashy bar snack—fried pickles!—is coming to a watering hole near you. And that, late at night, when you’re stumbling home drunk—but not so drunk that your culinary standards have abandoned you completely—you can score a serious bowl of ramen at a pop-up noodle bar run by an award-winning chef. It also means that, in a world where soda is the enemy and the powers that be are actually trying to ban it, drink mavens are coming up with new formulas for ginger beer, egg creams, phosphates, and other upgraded beverages that’ll make you burp to great new heights.

Well, aren’t you curious yet? Here, we delve into the top 10 dining trends of the moment, coming soon to a restaurant/bar/soda fountain/bakery near you.

The food world is a fickle one. One day, chefs are going out and foraging algae, mushrooms, insects, and other post-apocalyptic grub for their fine-dining meals. The next, they’re picking up arms and shooting their supper. Just when you think that you’ve gotten a handle on what's trending—it’s all about pickles and kale, right?—folks like us tell you no, dumbass, it’s fermentation and kohlrabi greens.
While staying on top of the changing fashions of the dining scene can be exhausting, this frenetic evolution brings plenty of upside for curious eaters. It means, for example, that an addictive, crazy-creative version of a usually trashy bar snack—fried pickles!—is coming to a watering hole near you. And that, late at night, when you’re stumbling home drunk—but not so drunk that your culinary standards have abandoned you completely—you can score a serious bowl of ramen at a pop-up noodle bar run by an award-winning chef. It also means that, in a world where soda is the enemy and the powers that be are actually trying to ban it, drink mavens are coming up with new formulas for ginger beer, egg creams, phosphates, and other upgraded beverages that'll make you burp to great new heights.
Well, aren’t you curious yet? Here, we delve into the top 10 dining trends of the moment, coming soon to a restaurant/bar/soda fountain/bakery near you.Written by Gabriella Gershenson (@gabiwrites)

The Chef as Hunter

First, it was farm-to-table. Then, it was foraging in the wild. Now, it seems chefs are getting their game on. Though it’s illegal to serve hunted meat at restaurants, chef Tim Love, owner of several restaurants including the new Queenie’s Steakhouse in Denton, TX, gets a thrill from the hunt—not just from a red-blooded male perspective, but from a culinary one, too. “Understanding not only the meat itself but also how that particular animal eats helps you pair the flavors in the dish,” says Love, who has staged wild game dinners for private clients. Jesse Griffiths, co-owner of local meats mecca Dai Due in Austin, and 2013 James Beard Award nominee for his book Afield: A Chef’s Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish, serves only FDA-approved game to diners, but eats and prepares wild game for his family at home. "Hunting is just like planting a garden,” says Griffiths. “It is the most direct connection with the animal world, and the empathy gained from it is formative.” And in New York City, chef Seamus Mullen, who grew up on a farm in New England, hunts year-round, be it for wild turkeys, rabbits, or deer. “Even if meat comes from Whole Foods, it’s been touched by around fifteen people,” says Mullen. He likes the control that hunting gives him over the dishes he creates. Though he doesn’t cook wild game at his acclaimed Spanish restaurant, Tertulia, he does make use of the same techniques that he applies to wild meat, such as aging it to develop a distinctive, funky flavor. “Wild-to-plate is the new farm-to-table,” says Mullen.
Dai Due
1208 W Fourth St Austin, TX
512-524-0688, daidueaustin.netTertulia 359 Sixth Ave New York City, NY
646-559-9909, tertulianyc.com

The Return of the Soda Fountain

What follows the craft beer and craft cocktail trends more naturally than craft soda pop? At Buffalo and Bergen in Washington D.C., “mixtress” Gina Chersevani has been bringing back the egg cream since she opened up shop last year, using the traditional seltzer and whole milk with a spruced-up chocolate syrup, which she makes with cocoa, sugar, star anise, cinnamon, chile, and other spices. In San Diego, Soda & Swine, which opened last February, offers Michelin-star chef calibre snacks (think chorizo sliders) with all manner of regional bottled soda pops (Cheerwine, Manhattan Special Sarsaparilla), plus housemade fizz from Polite Provisions next door, in enticing flavors like the Tropical Phosphate, a pineapple soda with falernum bitters, spices, tart phosphoric acid, and seltzer. And come July, Rachel's Ginger Beer is set to open a brick-and-mortar store in Seattle's Pike Place market, pouring the spicy brew on tap in flavors such as carrot beet, raspberry, strawberry, Asian pear, and apple kale, all made using local ingredients.
Buffalo and BergenUnion Market, 1309 5th St NE Washington, D.C.buffaloandbergen.comSoda & Swine2943 Adams AveSan Diego619-269-7632, sodaandswine.comRachel’s Ginger Beerrachelsgingerbeer.com

Third-Wave Bakeshops

Until recently, artisanal bakers in America have had one-track minds—they seemed to focus solely on making the very best French sourdough, or the finest Italian peasant bread, but rarely did they mix paradigms while mixing their doughs. But a new generation of bakeries has emerged recently, equipped with the seriousness of their forebears and a carefree polyglot spirit. Case in point: Hot Bread Kitchen, which opened its first retail store in New York City last year, calls itself the “United Nations of bread.” According to founder Jessamyn Waldman, “We make 21 different doughs that are made into 35 different breads representing 12 different countries.” Those include German rye bread, Mexican tortillas, and a flakey Moroccan flatbread called m’smen. At Breads Bakery, a new bakeshop in Manhattan with a location in Tel Aviv, Israeli-Danish baker Uri Scheft makes seeded Danish ryes that he perfected during stages in Scandinavia; sundry French breads that he learned under Alsatian master Eric Kayser; and Jewish staples such as chocolate rugelach and the butteriest babka you’ll ever taste. And at Craftsman & Wolves in San Francisco, pastry chef William Werner melds French technique with unexpected global flavors in snacks such as kimchi financiers, and the Revel, a savory cake with sausage and scallion, encasing a soft-cooked egg.
Breads Bakery 18 E 16th St New York City, NY 212-633-2253, breadsbakery.comCraftsman & Wolves 746 Valencia St San Francisco, CA 415-913-7713, craftsman-wolves.comHot Bread Kitchen 1590 Park Ave New York City, NY 212-369-3331, hotbreadkitchen.org

New New American Cuisine

New American cuisine used to mean American cooking refined by the forces of French technique and Asian flavors—in other words, fancified food that's hardly recognizably American at all. Now, there's a new, New American cuisine that has shed the pretenses of the past, embracing both regional, homegrown culinary traditions (fried chicken, po' boys), and far-flung immigrant contributions (Vietnamese bánh mi, Italian everything) that we've adopted as our own. In New York City, Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi continue to elevate Italian-American cooking with the just-opened Carbone, where lobster fra diavolo is served without a wink and nudge, as are other red-sauce classics, like linguine with clams (that’s razor, little neck, and��baby clams) and Caesar salad mixed tableside. Down in Memphis, TN, Michael Hudman and Andy Ticer—the owners of Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen and Hog and Hominy, which opened last year—go a step further, mixing American Southern cooking with authentic Italian flavor, offering dishes like smoked catfish brandade, and black-eyed pea tortellini with collard greens and ham hock brodo, a take on New Year’s hoppin’ John. “Andy and I came from big Italian families,” says Hudman. “My grandmother made us ravioli and fried chicken on Sundays. That’s my idea of a perfect meal.” Kindred spirit Chris Shepherd of Underbelly in Houston, which opened last year, has dubbed the diverse port city the new Creole metropolis of the south, and he melds Southern and immigrant influences in dishes like a roast-beef banh mi with a Korean hot pepper sauce, a pan-Asian riff on the po’ boy, and Thai fried chicken with kale braised in coconut milk—his take, of course, on the classic fried chicken and collard greens.
Carbone 181 Thompson St New York City, NY 212-254-3000, carbonenewyork.comAndrew Michael Italian Kitchen 712 W Brookhaven Circle Memphis, TN 901-347-3569, andrewmichaelitaliankitchen.comHog and Hominy 707 W Brookhaven Circle Memphis, TN 901-207-7396, hogandhominy.comUnderbelly 1100 Westheimer Rd Houston, TX 713-528-9800, underbellyhouston.com

Cross-Restaurant Collaborations

It used to be that restaurant pop-ups brought ephemeral, quick-hit dining experiences to a city near you. Now, collaborations among restaurants—chefs welcoming other chefs into their kitchens—seem to have overtaken and improved upon the trend. In addition to giving folks an opportunity to sample food from places they might never visit—think Mexico City's Enrique Olvera's stint at Empellón Cocina in New York City last year, or Philly's Michael Solomonov (Zahav) cooking Israeli food at Momofuku Ssam Bar just this past week—cross-restaurant collaborations give chefs a chance to exchange ideas. "At the end of the day I wanted to break up the monotony," says Alex Stupak, chef-owner of Empellón Cocina and the mastermind behind its collaborative PUSH Project, which welcomes Incanto's Chris Cosentino in June. The exchange can be on a small scale, too—on a recent night, Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese in New York City was flipping Prime Meats burgers on his griddle, while the namesake Brooklyn restaurant was serving Bowien’s Chongqing chicken wings—or on a large one, such as the elaborate “Twelve Days of Christmas,” in which Chris Kostow of Meadowood in St. Helena, California, welcomes a different chef to his kitchen each night (so far, David Kinch of Manresa in Los Gatos, California, is confirmed for 2013). "When chefs come and cook they’re excited—they push themselves a lot," says Kostow. "We try to cook with a nod to their respective styles."
See also: Alex Stupak explains the PUSH Project

Offal of the Sea

It seems that we’ve eaten every part of the pig, all the stomachs of the cow, the tongues of ducks, and the heads of goats and lambs. The next frontier? Nose-to-tail seafood. A signature dish at Incanto,Chris Cosentino’s San Francisco offal palace, is a cured Sardinian tuna heart shaved much like bottarga over pasta tossed with raw egg yolk, so that the umami-rich ribbons of heart cling to each strand of spaghettini. Cosentino likens the flavor to a really nice cheese, and he doesn’t stop at hearts: “Tuna spines, fish heads, monkfish liver, cod sperm, we do all of it.” At the restaurant inside the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel, all fish parts are fair game. Chef Richard Garcia revels in his role as a fish butcher, and he says that specializing in lesser-known species has left him with all kinds of innards to play with. “Typically the fish come fully intact because they’re underutilized, so no one is processing them,” says Garcia. “We decided to start using it all—in fish charcuterie like head cheese, monkfish-liver pâté, and fish-head soup.” And at Harold Dieterle’s The Marrow in Manhattan, which opened last year, marrow from the spine of the tuna melds with garganelli and a tuna-belly puttanesca, resulting in one of the most attention-grabbing—and fishiest—dishes on the menu.
Incanto1550 Church StSan Francisco, CA415-641-4500, incanto.bizRenaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel 606 Congress St Boston, MA617-338-4111
The Marrow 99 Bank St New York City, NY 212-428-6000, themarrownyc.com

Post-Kale Greens

At some point in the last few years, a healthy, overlooked green called kale became the mesclun mix of the 2000-and-teens. It was everywhere. And as much as we love our kale chips and kale salads and kale braises, kale is a cliché, as damning as babyccinos and bartenders with handlebar mustaches. But the upside is that kale has proven to be a gateway green—the marijuana to the crack cocaine that is the carrot-top pesto at Linton Hopkins’ Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta; the collard, broccoli leaf, and turnip/mustard/kohlrabi/beet green Southern-style braise from Coby Lee Ming at Harvest in Louisville; and the saline, juicy succulents—such as New Zealand spinach, florabunda, and ice plants—that chef Jason Fox likes to pair with seafood at Commonwealth in San Francisco. Kale, who?
Commonwealth 2224 Mission St San Francisco, CA 415-355-1500, commonwealthsf.comHarvest 624 E Market St Louisville, KY 502-384-9090, harvestlouisville.comRestaurant Eugene 2277 Peachtree Rd Atlanta, GA 404-355-0321, restauranteugene.com

Ramen Pop-Ups

Somewhere along the way, American chefs clued in to what their Japanese counterparts already knew—that late at night, regular diners turn into salt-craving drunks, and they want something meaty, starchy, comforting, and hot to soak up the booze and kickstart the hangover curing process. Enter the late-night ramen pop-ups that have been taking over restaurants all over the country. At Uni in Boston, on Thursdays to Saturdays from 11pm to 2am, award-winning chef Ken Oringer whips out a menu written on pieces of cardboard, offering three noodle soups in flavors like short rib and kimchi, and a vegetarian version with kabocha squash and hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, for around ten bucks each. On Friday nights, Hopscotch in Oakland, California becomes Yonsei Ramen Shop, slinging one meat and one vegetarian option, both $9 a pop. And in New York City, 11pm is the witching hour at Restaurant SEO, which transforms into Ramen Sanshiro, serving miso- and salt-broth ramen until the soup runs out.
Hopscotch/Yonsei Ramen Shop 1915 San Pablo Ave Oakland, CA 510-788-6217, hopscotchoakland.comSEO/Ramen Sanshiro 249 E 49th St New York City, NY 212-355-7722, eatatseo.comUni 370 Commonwealth Ave Boston, MA 617-536-7200, unisashimibar.com

The New High-End Bar Snack: Fried Pickles

We’ve seen the scotch egg, the chicken wing, and the pretzel all rise to prominence in ambitious barrooms around the country. Now, it’s time for fried pickles to ascend the pantheon of glorified bar snacks. Trenchermen in Chicago has raised the white-trash treat to its loftiest heights, creating a “pickle tot,” equal parts tater tot and fried pickle, served with a red onion and Greek yogurt-based riff on ranch dressing, plus paper-thin slices of dry-cured chicken breast. Since the spot opened last year, the dish has been a top seller (bonus: they’ve just been added as a side to Trenchermen’s famous burger). The wildly addictive fried pickles on the menu at Oak at Fourteenth in Boulder, CO, fried tempura style, are served with an herb-rich Green Goddess dressing. And at LT Burger in New York City, which opened last fall, the beer-battered pickle coins with smoked ranch dressing are the most popular item on the menu. “In France, we eat pickles cold and with charcuterie,” says chef Laurent Tourondel. “Eating them hot is something new.”
LT Burger 8 W 40th St New York City, NY 212-582-8200, ltburger.comOak at Fourteenth 1400 Pearl St Boulder, CO 303-444-3622, oakatfourteenth.comTrenchermen 2039 W North Ave Chicago, IL 773-661-1540, trenchermen.com

Fermenting Is the New Pickling

For a while, chefs were pickling everything they could get their hands on, from ramps to eggs to, well, pickles. Now, they’ve moved on to new frontiers of controlled rot. According to Jason Vincent of Nightwood in Chicago, “The weird thing about fermentation is that basically you’re letting things go rotten and eating it.” At Nightwood, Vincent ages salted beef fat in a sterilized jar for two months. What results is something that’s funky like prosciutto, and works its way into Nightwood’s salad dressings and pastas sauces to add deep, savory flavor. That stage of edible rot creates “an extremely unique flavor that provides umami, sourness, and funk,” says chef Sean Brock, who is fermenting all manner of foods at McCrady’s in Charleston, from hot sauce to Mountain Dew vinegar. One dish on his menu is grilled mussels with cucumber, basil, and popcorn miso, which he ferments from local grains. At Momofuku in New York City, much of the brainpower of the R&D lab, headed by Dan Felder, is devoted to fermentation. Felder has experimented with kimchi and a pork version of bonito flakes (the dried fish often found in Japanese cooking), but right now, the main focus is a mastery of miso. “Microbes have amazing capability to bring flavor,” says Felder, “and our idea was to pursue flavor.”
McCrady’s 2 Unity Alley Charleston, SC 843-577-0025, mccradysrestaurant.comNightwood 2119 S Halsted St Chicago, IL 312-526-3385, nightwoodrestaurant.comMomofuku momofuku.com

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